kittens in dishwashers...

You guys.  Art school is full of projects.  This should come as no surprise, but the amount of work required for 5 art classes is out of control (each syllabus says to expect 6 hours of work outside of class each week).  Thankfully, I'm still loving it!

Currently, my projects include:

Make a small book and include in it 8 collages that illustrate the 8 principles of design, including our own artwork.

3 still life sketches using charcoal, one that must have imaginary texture applied to the objects (like covering a glass bottle with feathers or carpet.

A photo montage using Photoshop, showcasing a decade of our choice as the theme, with text added to look like a poster.

A poster using InDesign giving information about a font family, in a 2-color design that includes the history, designer, all of the lower and uppercase letters, numbers, punctuation, etc.  

Choose a famous artwork and recreate it with our own interpretation using the drawing tools in Photoshop.  

Isn't school fun?!?!?  I'm so thankful to have the chance to be creative every day.  It's such a blessing.

I've been feeling like a bad blogger and blog friend these past few weeks, because I've been so busy.  I'm sorry to any of you reading if I have not commented on your blog recently!

And finally, because no post is complete without pictures, look at our sweet old man with litter all over his face, and some oldie but goodies of little Pepper the week we adopted her.  Awwwwww, right?

I love Baby's face in that last one.  Hahaha... he's like, is this really happening to me?



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More from our D.C. Trip

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my husband loves this stuff

Over the long holiday weekend, we headed out to Washington D.C. to visit family.  Our first stop was Andy's choice: to see the space shuttle, Discovery.  It's at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. 

It was so so BIG!  And pretty amazing to be standing a few arms lengths away from it.  I mean, this has been in space!  Crazy...  

I'm not into space exploration very much... it's one of those things that my little mind just can't fathom, so I just choose not to think about it.  I see pictures, I learned about the planets in school, I listen to Andy tell me what he's read, but then my brain just explodes inside when I really think about it all.  That's probably weird to say, but it's true.  Do you know how big some of the planets really are, compared to Earth?  It's nothing like those nice pictures from our 4th grade science textbooks.  Or how far away the sun really is??  Or how small our solar system really is compared to the universe???  And don't even get me started on how people ever figured out that we could launch a rocket into space.  And then they built it.  And then sent people in it.  And then those people stood on the moon.   Whoa.  Brain exploding.  But anyways, Andy LOVES IT.  So to the museum we went, and I have to say, I'm so glad we did.

If you love space like Andy, here's a good documentary I bought him for Christmas last year that you might be interested in.

Have any of you gone to see the shuttle?  Any other brains exploding out there?  I'd hate to think I'm the only one...

Happy Friday everyone!

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wanna know what you do in art school?

You sketch a lot.  A lot, a lot.  You learn to use cool phrases like "negative space" in casual conversations (i.e. Did you know the FedEx logo has an arrow in the negative space between the e and x?)  You have long 2-3 hour classes, but you get a lot of work time, which I'm finding is very calming and awesome.  You get to be creative 100% of the day and are inspired by the talented and creative people around you.  You carry 1,000 pounds of art supplies to class.  You have 4 sketchbooks.  You have lots and lots of homework. 

Here are a few of my first assignments.



This was my first sketchbook assignment for my drawing class.  We are learning how to get the proper scale and proportion.  See those guide lines going through areas of the first sketch?  That's what we're practicing.  We aren't worried about shading or details or anything else yet.  Just getting the right sizes and placement for each object.  These sketches were about 6 hours of work.  Checking the proportions is a lot of stopping, seeing, checking, re-sketching, and so on. 

In the second sketch, we had to make our 3 objects come to life and it had to tell a story.  Ha.

I have never considered myself an artist, and have never thought I was great at drawing.  But I can't believe how much learning this one strategy has already boosted my confidence!  I would have never been able to draw this 3 weeks ago!  It's amazing, and I am absolutely excited about the semester. 

Here's my first real project.  This one was done in Adobe InDesign for my type and digital layout class.  This was the class I was most excited for because I love fonts, using words as art, layouts and making everything look right.  I love it! 

This assignment was to take 3 personality words and put them in a meaningful layout.  We had to use the four types of font (serif, sans serif, script, and decorative), 3-7 colors, had to draw at least 3 shapes, and had to do it in a way that showed the meaning of the words.  How do you think I did?  (excusing the poor picture quality and streak the lab printer left me as a parting gift)

I say "I love art school" at least once a day.  Sometimes it's even "I can't wait to go to school tomorrow."  This weekend, I missed it.  I'm not sure if this is normal behavior, or if I'm just in my honeymoon phase... but I am so on cloud nine.

Hope your week is treating you right as well!

 

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DIY scallop paint sample canvas wall art

This wall art is another great one for those extra paint samples you have lying around!

Here's all you need.  I used my cricut machine to cut the circles just because it was easier for me.  But you could also easily trace a circles and cut them out, or use another circle cutter that you may have for scrapbooking.

First I spray painted my canvas (no pictures for this step, but I did several light coats like always).  If you want clean white edges, tape them off during this step!

While the paint is drying, you can cut out your circles.  I cut as many as I could with the samples we had left over from painting some rooms in our house when we first moved.

Next, you need to decide on your arrangement.  I spent a while playing until I had one I loved.  Okay, let's be honest... I had my circles cut for about 2 weeks before I finally decided how I wanted the layout.  But that's just me... I'm particular sometimes.  This was one of those times.   

Once I had my arrangement, I headed out to the garage to spray glue it all together.

Then I came back inside to trim the parts that went off the edge, and put a layer of mod podge on top just to give it a nice shine all over.  You can skip that step.  Actually, I forgot to include it in the supplies... whoopsies.

And there you have it!

Here are all my recent canvas wall art projects.  We're planning to hang them together as part of our basement project that's in the works.

In case you missed these projects...
DIY chevron wall art
DIY quote canvas

Fun projects for the holiday weekend, right?  Hope you have a good one!  

Linking up to:
Simply Designing
Chic on a Shoestring Decorating
Chase the Star
AKA Design
Homemaker on a Dime


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Etsy Love: Blue Ombre Treasury

 

I think I'm in love with the sewing machine photo, the camera painting, and the typewriter... and I might want them for myself...  

Don't you love the trend of using a brooch bouquet for your wedding?  How pretty is that blue and white one?  Love it.

And what a cool moose print!  The silhouette is made with the moose DNA code.  What an awesome idea.  

Don't you wanna go check out these great Etsy finds?  Which one is your favorite?

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elephants, asparagus, & jason bateman = a good weekend

It all started with a sketch of this fun little setup in drawing class Friday morning....

and continued at home with some colorful thumbnails for my first type and digital layout project... 

and then I dragged myself into the kitchen to make a simple meal of veggies...

and we ended the night with some hilarious episodes of Arrested Development.

Then on Saturday and Sunday, we began work on this guy!  Off came the doors, out came the shelves, and on went two coats of primer.  I'm so excited to finish it up and show you all how it turns out!

What did you do this weekend?




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